How Backup Became Beyond
by Lucy Blue Forest
Summary: Near tries to escape a rampaging Mello just like usual but he stumbles upon an abandoned room. They try to piece together what happened to B to turn him into the serial killer he is now. Rated T just in case Mello swears or something.
1. Chapter 1

It was just your average day at Wammy's house where Near was being ferociously chased by Mello with Matt following behind, not stopping his game of course. Only this time when Near ran through the door to the storage room he knocked over four brooms balancing on a tall, pale blue locker. The top hinge on the locker's door was bust causing it to be slightly ajar.

The young albino opened the door gently but with haste and as he stepped in he noticed the back of it was pulled up at a corner, just wide enough for someone to crawl through, and that's exactly what he did. On the other side of the locker was another room, one he hadn't noticed before.

Forest green coated the walls dulled out with age, cobwebs formed on the ceiling like a crown, dust particles stuck to them and the floor boards creaked. A musty fragrance coated the room, filling Near's nose. It wasn't a small room but it wasn't quite large either. Boxes were scattered around some open, some taped up.

Near decided to go back and inform Mello of his discovery, he did indeed like Mello, very much so but unfortunately the feeling wasn't mutual. Mello had hated Near since the moment he laid eyes on the lamb-like boy, they had been rivals ever since. No matter what Near said or did it just seemed to rile up the blonde further, to Near the dream of befriending Mello would surely stay as just that: a dream.

As Near agonised over his lack of friends he bumped into someone's back; he looked up to see the red-headed gamer and told him about his find. The three of the retraced his steps until they reached the hidden room once again. As soon as Mello stepped into it he immediately went to the boxes, throwing thongs haphazardly onto the floor if they didn't interest him.

"Hey, look at this," Mello said as he held up a picture frame.

The other two gathered around the chocoholic to look at the picture which was of L sitting on a bench reading with B who had his arm dangling over his shoulder and a huge grin plastered on his face. He looked so innocent; if you only went off this picture you'd never guess he'd turn out to be a serial killer.

"They look so young in this photo," Mello commented.

"I guess it was before B lost it," Matt added.

"It's loose," Near noticed as he reached towards the photo to try and slot it properly into the frame but it ended up falling out instead.

"Well done Near," Mello snapped sarcastically.

Matt bent down to pick it back up and noticed scruffy handwriting on the back of it, some of it was crossed out.

 _'Wammy's House L and_ _Backup_ _Beyond'_

"The 'Beyond' is written in a different handwriting."

"Yeah, the start is neat but then 'Beyond' is all scruffy."

Matt out the photo back in the frame and moved it to one side as Mello began digging through the box again.

"I think I found a photo album."

Sure enough it was a photo album, an old one at that, just like everything else in the room. It was overrun with photos of L and B; they must've been very close when they were young. The stumbled across the same picture that was in the picture frame of B smiling brightly without a care in the world as L sat on the bench reading ignoring his friend as he invaded his personal space.

Mello traced his fingers across B's face, "It's hard to imagine him ever smiling like this."

Suddenly, Mello's hand started being tugged into the photo as he went into a panic and tried to pull his hand out, Matt and Near coming to his aid in vain as they were all pulled into the book.

 _They arrived in what appeared to be the front of Wammy's House but it was tinted sepia. As the three aspiring detectives-to-be looked around they noticed they were back in time where the picture had been taken. L was sitting on the bench in his usual position with a book._

 _Just then B rounded the corner, panting slightly with something in his hands and an excited look on his face. The very picture of youth._

 _"L! Look, I found a camera in Roger's office!" he exclaimed._

 _"Roger's office? What did you do this time Backup?" L sighed._

 _B pouted, "Nothing! And you know I don't like that name."_

 _L decided to go back to reading his book, he didn't believe that B hadn't done anything and just happened to be sent to Roger's office because of a misunderstanding. B was a cheerful kid but he didn't get on very well with people and could be downright horrible, it was only around L that he seemed remotely normal it was only later on in life that B started to get...weird..._

 _"Watari!" the red eyed boy suddenly burst out causing L to jump slightly._

 _"Hmm? What's that you have Backup?"_

 _B's eyes narrowed for a split second at hearing his alias, "I found a camera, could you take a picture of us?" the young boy held out the camera to the orphanage's founder._

 _"I suppose so," the old man agreed._

 _L found this to be a good time to shove his nose back into his book as he felt his best friend's arm wrap around him and dangle off his left shoulder._

 _CLICK!_


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

The trio suddenly found themselves being spat out of the mysterious photo album in utter confusion. Mello held his head as he rushed over to where the album had landed and slammed it shut so that they would hopefully not be dragged into it against their will once again. Matt looked over at the blonde and then to the albino before asking "What just happened?"

"It appears we went back in time," Near stated, being oddly calm after the event that had just taken place.

"Yeah, we know that. But how?" Mello questioned, he'd be seriously worked up if Near knew the answer to that too. _'Oh, I was just doing a science experiment and happened to find out how to make time control work. Something even the greatest scientists can't do, look at me, I'm a genius! Praise me, worship me!'_ Mello imagined Near's voice (a high-pitched, over-exaggerated voice) mocking him.

The younger boy shrugged much to Mello's relief even though he didn't really believe near was responsible for it but you never know, well actually he does know now and thankfully his rival didn't have a clue either. But now they were lead back to the same query, how was this possible? Many people had photo albums yet they didn't experience this phenomenon, was it the photo? Or maybe it was the book itself? If the latter, was it the paper that caused this to happen?

"Do you think L and B know about this?" Matt wondered.

"Perhaps," Near added as he twiddled with a few strands of his hair.

Mello let out an aggravated noise "Damn it, we can't even ask them about it!" L was on a case and B was in an American prison.

"We could always fly to America," Matt joked.

"Yes!" Mello agreed, taking his friend to seriously as he grabbed his shoulders.

"I don't think he was being serious Mello."

"Well I _am_ serious!"

Matt laughed at the blonde "And how do you suppose we get there? Roger wouldn't let us go, nor would he believe us. What would we tell him: We travelled through time with this photo album and want to know if a serial killer can tell us more about it!" he finished with a teasing grin and a thumbs up.

Mello looked away in defeat, only now realising that it'd be near impossible to be able to get to America and even if they did manage to get there, there was no proof that B would know anything about it. He sulked for a bit as they discussed what they were going to do, whether they should just forget about it and bring it up to L the next time they saw him.

That was before Matt brought up a certain point "I wonder what L was like as a kid."

"Probably just like how he is now but shorter."

"I was lead to believe L didn't have many friends during his childhood here, and B seems to hate him now, and there was that incident with A. Were they all friends?" Near added.

"Good point Near. They seemed to be enemies and B seemed really jealous of L," Matt said, confusion growing the more they thought about it.

"You know, we could find out," Mello glanced at the album he dropped on the floor.

"You sure Mells?" Matt asked before they heard the bell signalling dinner time.

"We can look into this more later," Near suggested as they dashed out the door to retrieve their dinners.

Heads turned to stare at the rare sight of the three conversing at a table without Mello screaming at Near. The only reason being that none of them could get the album off of their minds and felt like they just had to discuss it, they were beginning to get very excited over the idea of knowing more about their hero than anyone else at the orphanage.

Their discussion was interrupted by the speakers informing them that L would be talking to them over a laptop like he usually would when speaking to the orphans. It was then that everyone went crazy, shoving food into their faces so they could get a good seat, they would only be looking at a letter on a laptop screen but that didn't matter to them. This was their idol; they wanted to be as close to him as possible!

Mello was no exception to this, having already finished his meal he raced down the corridor, barrelling through anyone in his way. Matt and Near trailing behind him and trying to keep up; 'twas the life at Wammy's House. Watari had barely made it through to the desk when Mello came bursting in, panting as it was quite a distance from the hall to his current location.

Not long after, Near and Matt arrived behind him, Matt dramatically fell on the floor from exhaustion. Mello planted himself down right in front of the computer, eagerly waiting for the elderly man to get everything sorted for the...meeting-type-thing. More children filled the room in anticipation, all acting like giggling school girls.

Everyone held back – or at least tried to hold back – a squeal when a large, black L appeared on the screen. He'd never admit it but Mello always had a difficult time of holding back his enthusiasm whenever the detective was involved, he was surprised that he hadn't burst when he realised that he could find out the details about L's childhood from the dusty photo album.

"Greetings, it's nice to see you all again."

 **A/N How would he greet people? He said "Greetings" to the ICPO right? It's always difficult writing for L, I never quite know what he'd say.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

There was a type of Q&A happening with L and the orphans taking place as per usual, everyone wanted to know all they could about the detective. Watari went around the room, making sure everyone got to ask a question before they'd go to whoever had their hand up which was most of them usually. Some people however didn't have any idea on what to ask so there were a few seemingly pointless, random questions asked.

One of the first odd questions today being from a brunette girl with pigtails who asked "What does your handwriting look like?"

"Well, I'd have to say that it's very messy, sometimes to the point where even I don't know what it says. That's why I write a lot on the computer."

Matt, Mello and Near all shared a look, remembering the scruffy handwriting on the name "Beyond" predicting that it was L's considering this new found information about his handwriting and the fact that B had hated the name Backup and L knew. Of course, it could've been someone else but based on the evidence so far, they went with it being L's.

The next child to ask a question was a dark haired boy "When do you think you'll be done with this case?"

"In a few weeks I imagine, a month at most."

"Will you be visiting after that?!" the same boy asked excitedly.

"One question at a time please," Watari told the boy, making their wide smile wither and he hung his head. Everyone knew he wasn't one for taking being told off well, no matter how little it was.

"Don't worry about it Watari. As for the question, I have decided that I will be coming back even if for just a short period of time unless there's an important case that I must start," the cheers rang throughout the small room.

Soon it was Near's turn to ask a question "Could you tell us about B?"

There was a brief moment of silence before L spoke again "That depends, what about B."

"What was he like as a child?" Near wanted to confirm that they had in fact seen past L and B; not someone else or stumbled across something that had never actually happened at all.

"Despite what you may think, he was actually rather cheerful growing up, he still got in trouble a lot though as you can imagine. A bit like what Matt and Mello's child would be like I think, seeing as Matt is very friendly and Mello frequently gets into trouble," L teased.

Matt and Mello's faces went bright red as Mello raised his voice but didn't quite shout "Shut up L!"

After the eventful discussion much to everyone's dismay, Watari deemed it time for the call to end as it had dragged on for quite a few hours. By the time it ended most of the children went back to their rooms seeing as it was quite late, not quite late enough for them to go to bed but dark enough to make them not want to go outside.

Since their call with L – which had been their only distraction from thinking about the album – had come to an end it was once again fresh in their minds as if someone had pressed pause on that event for those few hours before resuming once again. Near had, to Matt's surprise, actually be _invited_ into their room by Mello to discuss the occurrence with him.

"Is there even a reason for us doing this?" Matt had inquired after Mello had instructed them all to meet back in the room again tomorrow in between class.

"Of course, I want to know as much about L as possible!"

"Near?"

"I am curious to find out about L and B's former relationship. It doesn't make much sense to me, they're obviously hiding something and I want to know what it is."

"Precisely, don't tell me you're not curious too Matt," Mello said in disbelief, obviously shocked that his best friend wasn't as interested as him and his enemy.

"Okay, I'm a little curious I guess, fine, we'll meet back at lunch tomorrow then?"

"Yeah, and make sure no one's following you, just keep this between us. I don't want everyone knowing everything about L before me!"

"Don't you think it's strange though?" the other two turned to look at the albino boy "Why would it be hidden away? We have old photo albums in Roger's office and a few more scattered around, why would that one be somewhere out of the way, it seems to me as if they don't want anyone to know of it. Like I said before, I think they're hiding something."

Matt seemingly perked up a bit "So it's like we're doing some detective work of our own! We're figuring out the mystery of Beyond Birthday..."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Near woke up to the sound of a firm knock on his door signalling to him that he had to be up and ready for classes in an hour. He slowly lifted himself up from his white, plush bed that was almost too comfortable to leave and strolled across his room to a chest of draws to change into his usual attire before heading off to breakfast.

Despite sitting together at dinner the day before, Near didn't expect the three of them to share a table again, they were all in shock that they had just tome travelled, nothing more, nothing less. The little albino waddled to his favourite table, furthest away from the others so it was almost isolated from the others much like him.

"Hey Near!" a friendly voice called out to him "Wanna sit over here?"

Eyes widening for a moment before returning to their default size, Near turned around to see Matt waving him over. Maybe he had a chance at making friends after all. Insecurity washed over him as he sent a glance over to the read-head silently asking him if he was sure it was alright and that he wouldn't be in the way.

"Just sit down already," Mello snapped, acting like the little tsundere he is.

They all enjoyed their meals and talked about trivial matters, none of which even concerned the photo which made Near slightly relieved. At least he they could have a conversation about other things too so that it wasn't going to be as much of a fleeting friendship as it probably would've been if they could only talk about L and B's past. The bell rang and everyone started heading off to class.

After what seemed to be an eternity it was finally lunch time and the group tried not to hurry down the corridor as it could cause people to become suspicious and follow them. Mello not lunging for Near's throat was already a big enough suspicion as it was, they didn't need another thing to be added to the 'Suspicion List'.

Retracing their steps they arrived back at the broken storage cupboard and Matt picked up their item of interest "Let's start right from the beginning, that picture seemed to be taken after they'd known each other for a while."

"Sounds good," Near agreed and Mello nodded, it was almost scary how much those two were getting along.

Flicking to the first page and staring at the first picture, it was of a younger version of L grasping tightly onto Watari's hand whilst being stared at intensely by a younger version of B. They glanced around in a triangle before they pressed their fingers against the shiny paper, feeling themselves being pulled into the book once again.

 _The sepia land surrounded them again as they watched the younger L walk up to the gates of Wammy's House clutching onto the elderly man's hand._

" _Don't worry, I'm sure everyone will make you feel welcome," he gave the orphan a calming smile._

 _The future detective didn't respond though, he just looked down at his feet as the snow came down lightly, getting stuck in his hair as the cold, night air turned his breath into smoke. His nose was starting to develop a pink tinge to it and he tucked it away inside his scarf for it not to get too much colder, conserving as much warmth as possible._

 _Suddenly, the doors to the orphanage burst open and a boy with hair the colour of a raven's feathers came hurtling through it and up to the new recruit. L retreated further behind Watari's leg, using it as a shield of sorts._

" _Hi!" the bubbly B burst out._

" _..."_

 _B's smile dropped slightly at getting no response "I said hello, it's rude not to say anything you know!"_

" _Backup, calm down," Watari tried to reason with the immature little boy._

" _I only said 'hello.'"_

 _L looked down for a few seconds before choking out a barely audible "Hello."_

 _B's eyes suddenly lit up again, his smile returning "Did you hear that?! He said hello to me! I'm B, not Backup like he says. What's your name?"_

" _..."_

 _B continued to stare at L with a curious stare waiting for the reply which seemed unlikely to come._

 _CLICK!_

Without thinking, Mello reached over to the next photo, wanting to know what happened next.

 _There was a flash which caught poor little L off guard and he recoiled back, away from the source of the flash._

" _Kenna! You made him shy away even more, I didn't even get to know his name," B whined at a young woman who looked to be in her early to mid twenties. She had silky blonde hair that reached the bottom of her shoulder blades with a fringe drifting off to the right side of her face. Her topaz blue eyes shone giving her the kindest expression Matt, Mello or Near had ever seen._

 _They were all captivated, did she work at the orphanage? If she did, why hadn't they seen her before? Surely they'd remember someone so beautiful, with such a gentle face and a caring smile. Maybe she'd quit, maybe she was an orphan there who'd left._

" _Sorry B, it just made such a cute picture," her mellifluous voice matched her face perfectly, to put it simply, if you were to put her up in heaven with a flock of angels you wouldn't be able to tell the difference._

" _Kenna, you're always so obsessed with photography, you scared him with the flash."_

" _Are you sure it was me who scared him? He seemed to be backing away from you to me," the blonde teased._

" _Well he said hello to me! See, he's not scared of me!"_

 _B then proceeded to strike a pose, his hands on his hips and his head held high as if he were a hero for receiving a greeting from the shy boy in front of him who now had a small smile on his face created by B's antics._

 _CLICK!_


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

"Mello we're going to be late for the lunch line now," Matt whined.

"I wanted to know what happened next!" the chocoholic defended.

"We have a few weeks off of school work; we'll be able to learn more then," Near pointed out.

"I can't believe I forgot about that, we even have this afternoon off right?" Matt reminded himself.

"What are we waiting for?! Let's get lunch now so we can get back faster," Mello dashed towards the hall with his old and new friend in tow. As soon as Mello grabbed a sandwich he had already turned around and started back down the corridor.

"Hey, who do you think that girl Kenna was?"

"I'm not sure. She could be one of those students that stay and become a staff member here," Near suggested to Matt.

"Could be; she seemed to know B so it's possible. Most people probably wouldn't be brave enough or stupid enough to speak to B so casually."

"That's not entirely the case. Think about it, this B seems quite cheerful and friendly right now so he might not be a psychopath at this moment in history so no one would have a reason to fear him."

"Shut up Near," Mello snapped, -1 Friendship Points for Near.

They had a miniature picnic on the dusty floor, Mello continuously staring at the swirly lace pattern covering the pale yellow cover of the photo album with impatience.

 _B was currently holding a tennis ball in a stance that showed that he was about to throw it._

" _I'm going to throw the ball and then you're going to catch it, okay L?" B explained._

 _He didn't get a response but threw the ball anyway not thinking anything of it as he was sure even if L couldn't catch it properly that he'd pick it up eventually. Apparently he was worse than B had originally thought as L just let it fly past him and land on the lush grass before slowly rolling away._

" _Okay, well then...Maybe you can throw it seeing as I just showed you how, and I'll catch it so you know what to do."_

" _..." L walked over to the landing site of the tennis ball timidly._

 _He mimicked B perfectly and threw the ball and B caught it with a huge grin plastered on his face as he told L to see if he could catch it this time. He wasn't able to at first but once the first 3 – 5 failed catches were over with he finally caught it making B look like a proud father._

" _Well done L! Hey Kenna! Take a picture of this!" he hollered over to the tree the young woman was walking up to after having just stepped outside._

" _Are you playing catch?" she asked with a glowing smile._

" _Yeah, and L finally managed to catch it!"_

" _That sounds fun. I'm sure it'd make an excellent picture," she said as she started getting her camera out, focusing on the raven-haired friends._

 _B threw the ball to L once again._

 _CLICK!_

 _B was sprawled out on his bead as he stared at the ceiling in his and L's shared room in sheer boredom as L was sat (more like crouched) on the floor reading a history book as he predicted they'd have a test coming up._

" _L?" B turned his head to look at his friend._

" _Yes Backup?"_

 _B scowled slightly, "How many times do I have to tell you I don't like that name? At least call me B."_

 _The younger boy hummed in response, "Fine, what were you saying B?"_

" _Oh right, why are you revising history again?"_

 _L sighed, "I thought I already told you: I believe that we'll have a history test in approximately three months time."_

 _B rolled his eyes "Precisely, three months. That's ages away and we haven't even leant everything yet!"_

" _I'm learning more."_

" _That's 'cause you're reading."_

" _Exactly, I'm going to do better in the test."_

" _What does a test matter anyway?" B rolled himself off the bed and was now sitting on the floor._

" _You get to see how well you're doing in school," L said matter-of-factly._

 _B groaned, "So?"_

 _For the first time since their little 'argument' started L turned to look at B "I propose a bet."_

 _A smirk found its way onto B's face "Oh, and what would that be?"_

" _If you score higher than me on the test then I'll stop calling you B."_

 _B raised an eyebrow "And if you score higher?"_

" _I planned on just having the satisfaction of being right but now that you've brought it up...you have to bake me a cake."_

" _Deal," B agreed and shook hands with L._

 _B then started reading his own copy of the book L was reading and started studying too. The door opened to reveal a few of the other orphans holding a camera, bright smiles gracing their faces._

" _See, I told you those two would be revising," one of the boys said to his two friends; a girl in a pale green dress and another boy who was wearing jeans and a camouflage t-shirt._

" _Hello, we were taking photos of some people revising to put on the school board," the girl explained timidly, she and the two boys all looked very similar so Matt, Mello and Near guessed they were siblings._

" _Uh okay," B replied._

 _CLICK!_

"UGGGHHH!" Mello yelled.

What happened?" Matt asked the raging blonde.

"We haven't found out _anything_ important," Mello told him, biting onto his shirt in anger.

"That's not true, we can see that they're close, probably friends and shared a room," Near suggested.

"So, that's not interesting!"

"Actually it is. I don't know about you, but I was told L had a room to himself. But here we can clearly see they were roommates."

"Maybe he just went into B's room because they were friends," Matt retorted.

"I don't think that's the case. Didn't you notice the bookcase? There were two copies of all the school books."

"Someone else could be his roommate," Mello chimed in.

"There was only one history book on the shelf, the other was the one L was reading."

Mello sighed in defeat, "Okay so they're roommates, big deal."

Matt placed a hand on his chin in thought, "Something seems off about that bookshelf."

Near turned to him, genuinely interested "Like what?"

"I don't know, just something."


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

"Hey, Matt! Where are we going?" Mello shouted at his friend as he sprinted full throttle down the corridor.

"To find L and B's room!" the redhead shouted back to him.

"Why?"

"To check out that bookshelf," he replied once more as they arrived outside the room they believed to have previously been L and B's.

"You're still going on about that," Mello sighed exasperatedly.

Matt ignored him and opened the door, he snuck into Rodger's office the day before to check whether it was occupied by anyone but luckily for them it wasn't. He was going to bring Near along with them but the small white haired boy had informed him that he wanted to find out something himself.

Once the two boys walked in they were greeted with an unfamiliar sight. The room had changed a lot since L and B shared the room, it had come to look somewhat like Near's room; it was bland with an aura of emptiness making it look and feel lonely. Approaching the bookcase, Matt inspected it enthusiastically before finding a small hole in the side just big enough to fit your fingers inside it. He then pulled it towards him, as he stepped inside with a dazed Mello behind him he could see what appeared to be a secret passage leading down.

"I think we should get Near before we look down here," Matt turned back to Mello and closed the entrance.

"Good idea, where did he say he was going again?"

"Rodger's office I think. We should wait for him outside, he tolerates Near a lot more than us... Well, you," Matt grinned.

Mello rolled his eyes and they made their way towards Rodger's office to a wait Near but kept out of site as to not run into the grumpy man. A few moments later the two boys saw Near step out of the office after checking to see if the coast was clear.

"So Near, what were you looking for in there?" Mello spoke up.

"I wanted to find out who this 'Kenna' girl was," he answered, holding up a collection of books for him to see. They appeared to be past records of staff members and students.

"We found something really interesting ourselves Near!" Matt exclaimed.

"Oh? And what was that?"

"You know how you and Mello were making fun of me for being interested in that bookcase?" he started, "Turns out there's a secret passageway behind it!"

"Really? That's very intriguing," Near credited the redhead.

"Yeah fascinating, but we should get going before Rodger catches us with those records," Mello instructed.

They went back to Near's room as it was closer than Matt and Mello's. Going through the students of Wammy House they found nothing about a student being there by the alias of 'Kenna' or who matched any photos in the year L arrived at Wammy's so they went to searching the members of staff instead.

Near spotted the file first "Look at this," he said, catching the other prodigies' attention "It says she went missing one day."

"That's a bit strange don't you think? It looks like she went missing on (insert date here)," Matt continued.

"What do you suppose happened to her?" Mello wondered aloud.

Near closed the book, "Not sure, maybe we'll find out later on in the album; why don't we have a look at this date."

"Sure," Matt and Mello agreed.

Retrieving the album and flipping to the correct date and looking for all the pictures with Kenna in until she stopped appearing. Going to the one just before the last one of her in it, it seemed to be one of B with a playful, mischievous look gracing his features.

" _What did you want to show us B?" Kenna asked the child._

" _This!" B exclaimed happily._

" _What?" L replied, thoroughly confused._

" _The bookcase."_

" _What about it B?" Kenna questioned._

" _Take a picture before I show you!"_

 _Kenna sighed fondly, "Okay then B."_

 _CLICK!_

"Nothing," Mello complained.

"Let's just continue onto the next one," Matt suggested without properly looking at it.

 _B then pulled the bookshelf away from the wall revealing the passageway. "Tada!"_

" _What is this?" Kenna breathed in awe._

" _How did you find out about it B?" L asked._

" _I tripped and fell," he replied, too excited about his discovery to care about the pain he felt._

 _Kenna smiled with enthusiasm "Let's get a photo; it looks like something out of a mystery novel or a thriller of some sort."_

" _I'll take a photo of you in front of it if you want?" B offered._

" _Yes please, thank you B," she passed the camera over to the raven._

 _She skipped over to the staircase and smiled as wide as she could as B took the picture._

" _Hang on, it's a bit blurry. Can I take another?"_

" _Sure you can."_

" _I don't know how yours are so good all the time," B pouted._

" _Here, I'll show you some tricks," just as she was about to walk over to them her foot slipped and her usually smiling face contorted into one of pure horror as she felt her weight falling backwards._

 _CLICK!_


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

The three successors stared at each other intently, wondering what happened because obviously they had found a secret room and probably explored it (something Matt was itching to do). However, this still didn't seem to answer their questions on what happened to the blonde woman to make her disappear without a trace.

"Perhaps the next one will show us more? There weren't many photos of Kenna in the album, so this probably wasn't the last time she was seen. This is going to make things more difficult, there aren't many photos left before we reach the day she vanished," Matt said.

"How unusual to see the three of you together," a disembodied voice spoke from the direction of the door. "And it doesn't look like Wold War III occurred either, even more peculiar."

Whipping their heads around fast enough to give them whiplash, they stared wide-eyed at the intruder at the door before Matt and Mello broke out beaming and even the corners of Near's mouth twitched upwards. "L!" they all yelled in unison.

"Boys," he replied, nodding in acknowledgement.

"You're back!" Matt leaped up to hug the beloved detective.

Mello quickly followed suit after the bubbly redhead to cling onto his idol as Near stood back a little further away, not being one for physical contact. Despite being like Near (in the affection giving department) L returned the gestures he'd received from the two children the best he could. They were like a family, even though he wasn't around a lot he still cared greatly about their wellbeing much like a father who worked away from home.

He wasn't supposed to pick favourites but how could he not when he'd taken these three in himself, there was a bond between them since then which made him feel like he had to protect them from the world. Because of this, he truthfully didn't want any of them to be his successor knowing the inevitable danger the job would put them in. Not that he didn't recognise their abilities along with those abilities came downfalls as well, all people have them and if Near and Mello worked together then they could get through them for the most part.

Seeing them not trying to kill each other when he entered the room was relieving, still, he did not want them to have to face the danger all the same. Things went wrong all the time, Mello could panic, Near could be too blunt and not be able to stop the fiery blonde and Matt would've lost it before Mello could even realise something was wrong. Just thinking about it made him want to hold them close and keep them safe and secure, no harm was permitted to go near his children.

It would take a long time to make such a decision, who he thought would be most likely to survive. Since Near was the most like him it made sense to be chosen but he lacked the ability to initiate anything, that was Mello's strength. Besides, if L managed to die and Near was to be his replacement that would mean he'd make similar mistakes and would fall sooner or later. Mello was obviously far too emotional; if he made one questionable he'd bear down on himself and would be wrecked with frustration at his incapability to do everything perfectly. He would rush into things without thinking them through and later he'd realise and prior point would kick in. Matt was too laid back, he'd leave everything to the last minute and wouldn't go over plans enough, and he'd assume things would run smoothly and without a hitch. The redhead did think very thoroughly but that wasn't enough, you have to dig deeper than that and think outside the box, then he'd feel guilty and depressed if something went wrong all because he thought he'd got the answer to figuring it out but have it not turn out to be the best. Having something go wrong and then be blamed for a single mistake he could potentially make would kill him, he couldn't let Matt endure that. It wouldn't be him, that was for sure.

He felt one of the heads resting on his chest tilt upwards "L," Mello stared.

"Hmm?"

"We were going through the records of past residents here..."

"What for?" the detective asked suspiciously.

"...Personal interest," hesitation was evident in his voice, indicating that he came up with the excuse on the spot.

L sighed, knowing he wasn't going to get the actual answer "What about it Mello?" he noticed Matt and Near exchanging nervous glances.

"I just wanted to know...the woman: Kenna... Do you know what happened to her?" his small, feminine body tensed slightly, anticipating a bad reaction.

Now was L's moment to hesitate "There wasn't anyone by the name of Kenna working here."

"But we have the file right here," Near interrupted, holding up the record.

Eyebrows knitted together in confusion – although not very noticeable under his wild head of unkempt hair – L whispered to himself: "I thought..."


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

"I thought..." he trailed off.

"What is it L?" Matt asked concerned.

"You shouldn't have these. I assume you took them without Rodger's permission," L staggered, pointing at the children in question with lightly shaking hands.

The silent faces told L all he needed to know so he proceeded to hurriedly collect the record books off of the floor. Looking at their pitiful, guilty faces the young detective sighed knowing he shouldn't have gotten so worked up over something they had no idea about. There was no way they could know so why did he panic like that?

"...I apologise, I shouldn't have shouted at you like that. It's just that Rodger seems to be in an exceptionally bad mood today," he lied. "I don't want you getting into any more trouble than you have to, I'll take these back. Please try not to get into too much trouble."

Once he left, the three young prodigies let out the breaths that they had all been holding as they glanced between each other wondering what had gotten into their mentor all of a sudden. It was obvious they weren't going to be getting anything out of him any time soon and it appeared that he knew more than he was willing to share. Because of this Mello, Matt and Near decided that they'd go to the next photo to try and figure it out for themselves, following their previous plan of action.

Upon opening the familiar photo album they flicked to the appropriate page where they noticed the picture of Kenna's frightened face mildly contorting before going back to its original state and repeating the contortion again.

"That's never happened before," Matt furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

"Let's take another look, it might tell us something," Near offered.

 _Her foot slipped and her usually smiling face contorted into one of pure horror as she felt her weight falling backwards. A small scream left her lips as the two children ran up to her but it was all for naught since she had already tumbled viciously down the staircase and landed some time later with a sickening thud._

" _Kenna!" B cried as he raced down the stairs to her aid._

 _L followed after, equally as concerned about the twenty-four year old bubbly blonde who had been close to the both of them. Thundering down taking two steps at a time (three in B's case) they descended as fast as they could to bottom of the passage they saw Kenna in a heap on the damp stone floor._

 _She had landed gracelessly on the cobble flooring which had small tufts of moss poking out of the cracks between them in scattered areas. There was a long, dark, threatening hallway behind her but she couldn't see it despite the fact that her head was lolled back, forcing her line of sight way from the death-trap. Limbs twisted and mangled together into knots as her hair cascaded onto the ground in a dull blonde sea, some of the moss making its way through the strands._

 _Blood oozed from the top of her head, down her face and over her left eye reaching her cheek. Her mouth was slightly agape and her eyes lost their colour and rolled to the back of her head._

 _B lost it first, tears streaming down his porcelain face like a fountain of diamonds flowing across his features. L however stood frozen to the fifth step from the corpse not knowing what to do as he shook in terror once he realised the body had already been drained of its life._

" _What...What do we do?" B started. "We need...we need Watari!"_

 _L nodded blankly, his expression still one of shock: eyes wide, lips parted, pale as a ghost. He shot back up the stairs and rampaged through the corridors into Watari's office where the elderly man held a look of obvious surprise at L's sudden change in attitude. Never once had L shown much of a sign of emotion and yet here he was gasping for breath and panic clearly engraved into his small, fragile body._

" _L, this is unusual. What is troubling you?"_

 _Still unable to convey his thoughts properly due to the shock he pointed to the door before ushering the inventor to follow him as he lead him into his and B's shared room then down the staircase once more. Once they'd reached the end they found B kneeling beside Kenna tears still staining his face and just like that, the emotions piled onto L and he fell apart, he couldn't hold them back anymore since everything during the event just began to fully sink into his brain. It had all been happening so fast that he hadn't been given the chance to dwell on it but now it felt as if time stood still, B was crying, Watari was examining the injuries and L had taken that time where nothing was happening to let his emotions break through the boundaries in the form of tears._

 _The moment the first few tears fell B got up and made his way, still in tears himself, over to his best friend to lean his head on his shoulder, the added weight causing them both to topple back onto the hard cobble steps._


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

"Wait, she died?!"

"It appears so Mello," Near answered.

"Hang on," Matt looked around "Aren't we...still here?"

Mello and Near took in their surroundings, they didn't think they'd still be in this place but how could they not realise sooner, they were supposed to be geniuses and yet they could decipher the difference between a creepy corridor and a familiar room. But none of them were really concerned about the fact that they lacked simple observation skills as there was a mildly more pressing matter on their hands: how where they supposed to leave?

L was still crying in B's arms, Watari was still at the corpse deciding what the best way to approach the situation would be. Obviously, informing the other students would be one of the toughest parts however he had no idea how to deal with the two best students weeping on the staircase; L was usually so calm and collected, you would've thought he'd say something heartlessly logical and yet here he was, acting like a normal child his age.

"Hey L," Mello tried to reach out but his hand just went straight through the small boy's body.

"So, it looks like we can't interfere at all. That's good I suppose, we wouldn't want to change the future in any way, that could prove to be quite troublesome if we were to make a drastic change," Near analysed.

Matt nodded "Perhaps if we just observed things for now we might find something out. This is probably the main turning point in their relationship."

"You're right, thanks Kenna for causing something interesting to happen," Mello proclaimed gratefully.

The little-blonde-ball-of-rage's two companions exchanged confused and slightly scared looks to each other wondering how he could completely disregard the fact that an innocent person died and that his beloved L was crying in the arms of a psychopath (although not technically a psychopath at this point in time).

Watari then turned to them "Would the both of you please wait in your room."

"I'm not leaving Kenna!"

"Backup," Watari warned.

"This is what I hate about all you adults, none of you listen to me! Kenna was the only one of you who ever listened to me; she was the only one who cared about what I had to say Watari!" B vented.

L tugged at B's sleeve, tears still clouding his eyes although he appeared to have collected himself a bit more now.

"B, can we leave now. You shouldn't have to see her like this."

B stared a hole through the floor "Fine, let's go."

' _I didn't think he'd be so talented calming B down considering his social ineptness,'_ the successors thought to themselves. L and B trudged back up the staircase to their shared room (Matt, Mello and Near followed of course) still in shock over what happened, B was only meant to show them the secret passage way and they were supposed to find it cool and explore. Nothing like this was supposed to happen.

"I'm sorry L, I just wanted to go on an adventure," B sniffed.

"Don't worry about it; there was no way you could know what would happen. Just forget about it."

The emotional child sighed angrily "There you go again acting like you don't feel anything. How can you just expect me to forget something like this? You wouldn't understand! How could you, when you don't feel anything at all?!"

Young L sat and stared at his friend as his wailing levels increased drastically unsure of what exactly he did wrong, maybe B was right. Maybe he couldn't feel anything at all and he only thought that he could, it was possible that he reacted certain ways because he'd seen others act that way in certain situations and he'd just imitated them from observation.

' _Perhaps it would be better if I stayed away from B. I'm obviously causing him some kind of pain, it's settled then, I'll do what's best for B. B...not Backup but: B...'_

L picked himself up off of B's bed and went to his own figuring it would be beneficial to the both of them if they were apart; L could no longer hurt B and L wouldn't have to go through the worry of hurting his friend again. He still didn't understand why he was so upset but he supposed that just provided him with more evidence that he wouldn't be able to make B happy.

"Did you guys hear that too?" Mello inquired.

"It appears we can also hear a few thoughts, maybe only if they're clear. I'm sure Watari and especially B have their thoughts in a jumble so that could mean that they're harder to transmit over to us."

"Or maybe L created this album and made it replay things from a certain point to remember specific memories that he found important," Matt suggested.

"It doesn't matter though does it, we found out why B hates L. He was angry at him for saying something insensitive and then seemingly dumping him," Mello added.

"Now you're making it seem like they were a couple," Near jested for the first time in his Wammy career.

"That's what you picked up? I'm more interested that he just called L insensitive, he's never insulted his dear L before."

"Shut up Matt," he grumbled, unamused.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

After watching the two young prodigies mope around for approximately a week and hoping that their timeline had stopped (which they assumed it has an none of them found themselves growing hungry) they noticed something quite odd.

The first memory they saw, B had found a camera in Rodger's office and he'd called his friend Backup instead of B. also, they appeared to be close friends. Possibly closer than they were at this point, something must've happened between those events that kindled and reignited their friendship.

Near also mentioned that the first memory they saw was very close to the one they'd been through, that was a given though. Who'd fill an album up with photos of sad children? At many points during the week they'd noticed that both L and B looked as if they were about to say something to the other but stopping before even uttering out the first syllable.

"I wish they'd apologise already, this is depressing to watch," Matt groaned.

"We know for a fact that they start talking again, just be patient, it will happen," Near chimed from his place where he was spread out across the floor in a child-like manner.

The read-head huffed, "Sorry that I don't want to wait three months for them to finally make up."

More days passed and the trio began to wonder if Matt was right about it taking months for them to push away their pride or insecurities, whatever was stopping them from unleashing their thoughts. It was boring since they didn't do anything either, they went to lessons, ate, revised and slept; that was all that occurred in their lives at the current moment in time.

Matt was getting seriously bothered by his boredom. Thankfully a lone book took pity on his suffering and made its presence known by sitting in the middle of the floor; B didn't notice the crafty little object though. As he approached his bed silently, the little bugger of a book caused the tiny serial killer to be to slip back noisily onto his butt.

His ungraceful landing caused him to fall backwards into the bookshelf which in turn forced a number of books to fall onto the poor thing's head. L had been lying on his own bed, staring at the wall when he heard the loud crash and slightly feminine scream from B. The sudden commotion ripped him from his thoughts.

Throwing himself off of the bed, L ran over to his friend, crouching before him. He had no idea how to handle this, what should he do? Not knowing what to do he "sat" leaning forwards timidly with his hands out in front of him, wondering whether he should hug his roommate or not. When L had been pushed down the stairs B had hugged him and lead him towards the nurse's office, was that what he was supposed to do now?

"Are…are you okay?" L hesitated, "Do you need to go to the nurse?"

"It's fine, it doesn't hurt," B turned his head sharply to the side, wincing as he did so.

"But an encyclopedia fell on your head," L tried to reason.

"It was just a small one," B stubbornly retorted.

After a debate that went on for much too long B finally allowed L to escort him to the nurse to make sure he was indeed okay like he'd said. Fortunately, once the nurse had checked him over (a difficult task as B kept biting her when she tried to check his head) they found out it wasn't serious as it was only a paperback encyclopedia so it didn't cause as much damage.

The walk back to their room had been long and quiet, until B decided to speak up.

"…Sorry. I didn't mean it, you know, you having no feelings and all…"

L was taken aback, his pride had been holding him back from apologising to the emotion young boy but now that B had apologised to him his pride was long forgotten, he just wanted his friend back.

"No, I shouldn't have told you to forget about it. People have different ways of getting through grief, I should've let you figure out how to get over it yourself," the child version of the detective admitted.

B smiled "There you go again, thinking logically. You really are so cold L."

Matt celebrated by throwing his arms above his head in victory, now he wouldn't have to deal with two emotionally troubled children as his only source of entertainment. Mello and Near stared at him with piercingly judging eyes. Surely, he couldn't have been that bored.


End file.
